


Broken Shield

by VampirePaladin



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Gen, Past Character Death, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 15:39:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2155968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/pseuds/VampirePaladin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A plague has wiped out most of humanity.  Four girls live in the ruins of a city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Shield

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Panny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panny/gifts).



Sayaka ducked behind a brick wall as the car passed. She winced as she heard a voice scream. The hooting and hollering from the car got louder. Then came the thump like when you hit a watermelon with a mallet. Sayaka peeked over the edge of the wall. The woman was on the road, she was bleeding but clearly still alive. The car started backing up. Sayaka ducked back down before it could back up over the woman and run over her again. She didn’t look again until the sound of the engine and the male voices were far away. 

She walked toward the body, clutching her baseball bat tightly. The woman was clearly dead. Sayaka breathed a sigh of relief. She would have felt guilty if the woman was still alive. She knelt next to the corpse and began to look through the pockets. There was some old receipts in one, but in the back pocket there was a knife. Technically, the knife was too long to be legal. Really, who was going to arrest her for it. Sayaka slipped the knife into her jacket pocket. She stood up, adjusted her backpack and headed down a cross-street. She really didn’t want to get to know the people in the car.

There were all kinds of things littering the street. There was a car that had crashed into a telephone pole, long stripped of anything useful. A child’s toilet was smashed. The empty wrappers of store bought onigiri were caught in a rain gutter. The song of birds rang over the silence of dead humanity. She would hear any vehicles long before she saw them. 

She turned to the left, heading into a house’s yard. The front door was still closed, and locked when she tried the knob. The child’s potty through the glass window let her into the house instead. She left her shoes on, the owners were probably long dead anyways. She still double checked to make sure no one was inside. The only occupant was a goldfish floating upside down in a half empty bowl of water.

Sayaka went into the kitchen, took off her backpack and sat it down on the kitchen table. She started going through the cupboards, ignoring the photos held onto the fridge with magnets. There wasn’t much, a box of crackers, three cans of mackerel, a bottle of water, and a bag of cheese flavored corn puffs. She put the crackers, mackerel, and water into her backpack. Sayaka sat down on a wooden chair and opened the bag of corn puffs. She ate it slowly, savoring each bite. When she finished she dropped the empty bag into the garbage can.

“Thank you,” she said to the empty house before leaving out the front door.

 

Mami stood on the roof of a building. The wind tugged at her curls and the hem of her magical girl skirt. The only thing that kept her hat from flying off was the hatpin that contained her soul gem. She didn’t turn her head when she heard the sound of a pair of boots hitting the roof behind her.

“How is she?” Mami asked.

“She fell asleep. Why are we keeping her around again?”

Mami turned to look at Kyoko. “She’s a fellow magical girl.”

“She is useless.”

There really wasn’t anything to say in response to that, so instead Mami just turned her gaze back to the streets. 

They didn’t really know much about the magical girl. She had just been sitting on the ground, starring off into the distance. She had offered no resistance as Mami guided her to her home. The girl would eat when food was put in front of her. She would sleep when she passed out. She didn’t speak, offer resistance, or anything really.

“Kyoko, do you see that?” Mami pointed at a car rushing down the street. It was chasing a girl. Mami thought she recognized her from school, which felt like a lifetime ago.

“She better run faster. They’re going to run her down,” Kyoko said as she opened a pox of pocky and ate a piece. 

Mami visualized a rifled musket in her mind. She thought of the barrel with the spiral on the inside. She imagined the bullet seated deep down with the gunpowder packed in behind it. Then she saw the hammer and the lock. The rest was just window dressing. The weapon appeared in her hands. She brought the butt to her shoulder, took aim, and slowly squeezed the trigger as the breathed out.

The car slowed and then stopped after the bullet pierced the engine.

“Waste of magic,” Kyoko said.

“Maybe, but we have plenty of grief seeds and collecting more and more every day.”

 

Sayaka kept running after the engine stopped. The adrenaline helped her move further and faster than she ever could have hoped to in P.E. She kept moving block after block, not looking back. When she finally did stop she fell to her knees. Her legs felt like jelly. Her stomach kept on tightening like a girdle under her skin. The corn puffs tasted horrible the second time around.

She made herself stand up. It took three tries before she finally succeeded. 

“Sayaka Miki.”

Sayaka spun at the sound of her name. Standing there was a girl with ebony hair and porcelain skin. Her hair was so very long. She was wearing the uniform for Mitakihara Middle School. That was odd as there hadn’t been classes in days, if not weeks. Her stockings had rips and holes in them. The most unnerving part was her dull, dead eyes that wouldn’t leave Sayaka's face.

“Aren't you that transfer student?” Sayaka could barely remember her.

“There you are!”

Sayaka turned to see two girls, one with curls and the other with a ponytail. The one with curls ran to the transfer student. The other stopped in front of Sayaka.

“Sorry if she was bothering you,” the ponytailed girl said with a toothy grin. “She’s not exactly right anymore.”

“She knew my name.”

“She did? That’s wonderful,” the girl with curls said. “Is she your friend?” she asked the transfer student.

“Miki Sayaka,” the transfer student said. Her dead eyes were still staring into Sayaka’s soul.

“She’s a transfer student into my class. I’m not really friends with her.”

“This is the first time she has spoken to anyone. You are Miki Sayaka, right?” the girl with curls said.

“Yes, I’m Miki Sayaka.”

“Then would you like to come with us?”

“What? You said nothing about picking up more strays, Mami.”

“It wouldn’t hurt. Besides, there is strength in numbers. Maybe she can help Koneko? It wouldn’t hurt for a little while.”

“Koneko?” Sayaka asked.

“It’s what we call her. I’m Kyoko. You can come with us for the night, I guess.” The grin on Kyoko’s face wasn’t entirely nice.

“She is our guest, Kyoko,” Mami said. It sounded more like a warning than anything else.

“C’mon, new girl, follow me. Mami will take care of Koneko.”

Sayaka looked over her shoulder at the way she had come. Being with these girls would probably be a little safer. Besides, they might have more food.

“I’m right behind you.”

 

Sayaka followed Kyoko through the streets of the city. Mami followed behind as she led Koneko. The route they took seemed utterly random with a great deal of doubling back. By the time they arrived outside of an apartment building Sayaka was completely lost. She would never be able to give directions on how she got here.

The main entrance to the building was barricaded. Instead, they went around to a fire escape. Kyoko jumped unnaturally high to grab the ladder and pull it down. The four girls climbed up to the top floor. When Sayaka glanced through the windows she would see ruined rooms that had their doors barricaded from the outside. Once they got to the top floor the girls climbed in a window of a barren apartment. Then they went to the stairwell and started going down the floors they had just climbed up. Finally, they arrived outside of an apartment with Tomoe Mami written next to the door. Someone had added a piece of paper that said Sakura Kyoko and Konenko.

The inside of the apartment was disturbingly normal. Kyoko went to the window and started scanning the streets below. Mami led Koneko to the couch and left her there.

“Feel free to make yourself comfortable. I’ll have snacks ready in a few minutes,” Mami said.

“Thanks, I’ll do that,” Sayaka said.

Sayaka made herself comfortable at the low table while Mami went into the kitchen. A few minutes later Mami came out with a tray in her hands. The tray had a pot of hot tea, a homemade cake, plates, cups, and forks. Kyoko joined them at the table, leading Koneko there.

Mami served them cake and tea. Sayaka was surprised at how fresh and moist the cake was. It must have been freshly baked, which was impressive since the city hadn’t had running electricity in over a month now.

“I have a proposal for you, Sayaka,” Mami said.

Kyoko gave her a look of confusion.

“Myself and Kyoko are very good at scavenging supplies safely, but we can’t do that and watch Koneko. One of us has always had to stay behind to watch her to make sure nothing happens. Koneko has never spoken before today. I would like to propose that if you would be willing to watch the house and Koneko while we are out that we will provide you with food and someplace safe to stay.”

Kyoko nodded and said, “So that’s what you were planning. It’s not a bad idea.”

Sayaka did consider it, but really there was only one choice that she could make.

 

Mami and Kyoko had left early in the morning. Sayaka was told it was to scavenge for food. In reality it was to hunt down witches whose population had exploded as a new plague swept through humanity. Koneko sat on the couch. Sayaka had put food in front of her and the girl did eat it.

“I’m surprised you remember me. I mean we were only in school together for a month before you disappeared. Everyone thought you died in the storm.

“I had a friend who died in it. I don’t even know why she left the shelter and ran out into it. I saw her just minutes before she did. I could have stopped her. I should have followed her.

“Do you remember her? Her name was Kaname Madoka.”

For the first time in a long time Koneko turned her head to look Sayaka in the eyes. Something in Koneko’s looked so broken and resigned with tears forming at the edges.

“I’m sorry,” Koneko said. She sounded less like the girl that had been time traveling for so long and more like the little girl that had seen her first friend die.

“You can talk! Hey, what is your name? I know it isn’t Koneko, but I can’t remember what it is exactly. I just remember it was really unusual.” Remembering the name of a random transfer student hadn’t been very high on the list of Sayaka’s priorities. 

“Koneko is fine. I don’t want my old name anymore.”

“Alright,” Sayaka said. It made sense to her that Koneko might not want to be reminded of her past if she had lost others. Who was Sayaka kidding, everyone had lost almost everything.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“Huh?”

“It isn’t your fault that Kaname Madoka is dead.”

“I know. In my head I know it isn’t my fault, but my heart feels like it is.”

The two girls sat together in a comforting silence that they had never shared in any timeline.

 

Months ago Mami had found an unsigned message left for her in her apartment. It had looked like Kyoko’s hand writing and had asked for her help fighting a really tough witch miles away. She would have to take the train to get there. Mami considered not going, but in the end she just couldn’t ignore it if Kyoko needed her help. When she arrived there was no Kyoko and no witch. A bad feeling in the pit of her stomach made her hurry back. She arrived just too late to encounter Walpurgisnacht. 

Mami had searched for the magical girl that had fought the most powerful of witches. She found her sitting in a puddle of water, eyes staring blankly forward. The other magical girl had a shield on one arm with a large crack running down the middle. Whatever ability it granted would be gone now. 

It would have been smart of Mami to leave her behind or mercy kill her. Instead, Mami led her home and started to care for her.

Mami never did find out who left the note for her.


End file.
